In the lead-up to the election, HBF released a housing blueprint for the next government, detailing measures it believes are crucial to tackling the decreasing housing supply and addressing existing barriers to home builders delivering much-needed homes, including:

• calls for a new, targeted first-time buyer scheme, expanding green mortgages and abolishing stamp duty to purchase homes with an A or B EPC.
• finding a resolution to nutrient neutrality - including calls to bring forward legislation to unblock 160,000 homes currently on hold due to Natural England’s disproportionate mitigation measures.
• reinstating mandatory housing targets and the Five-Year Housing Land Supply,
• reforming the Standard Method of Housing Need
• ringfencing planning application fees for planning purposes
• acceleration of the implementation of National Development Management policies.
• developing a roadmap for the talent pipeline needed to deliver low-carbon, sustainable housing

Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the Home Builders Federation, said: “We look forward to engaging with the new Government on how we deliver its very welcome ambitions for housing delivery.

“In recent years, we have seen sharp falls in both the number of homes being built and the planning permissions being granted and some major barriers need to be removed to meet the challenge.”

He argues that effective support for first-time buyers is needed to address the lack of affordable mortgage finance and workable solutions to the nutrient issue holding up around 160,000 homes.